This document summarizes Leah Giarritano's experience monitoring the ISLMANET-L listserv over four weeks for a class assignment. Some key points: - ISLMANET-L is an electronic discussion list that connects school library media specialists in Illinois to share ideas and resources. - The listserv receives 20-30 emails per day on varied topics and has proven a useful outlet for collaboration and problem-solving. - Recent discussions have focused on issues with eReader licensing and options for automating a school library. - The archives function allows for targeted searches that successfully retrieved relevant past discussions. - Overall, the listserv provides a respectful space for professionals to connect and stay informed

1. Leah Giarritano
October 1, 2011
LIS506LEC
Electronic Listserv Monitoring Assignment
Audience
For this assignment I chose to monitor the ISLMANET-L listserv, an electronic
discussion list co-owned by the Illinois School Library Media Association (ISLMA)
and the Early Childhood and Parenting Collaborative (ECAP) at the University of
Illinois. ISLMANET-L provides a forum for school library media specialists and
others interested in Illinois school library media programs to share ideas, resources,
problems and solutions. Based on my observations, this listserv achieves its goal of
uniting those interested in issues relating to the function of school library media
specialists in Illinois. This is a heavily utilized listserv that successfully provides its
users an outlet to bounce ideas off one another, collaborate and brainstorm on
important issues impacting school libraries and to discuss methods to solve
important problems faced by libraries across Illinois.
Logistics
I subscribed to ISLMANET-L in September 2010. However, due to time constraints
and the overwhelming volume of emails from the listserv, I had not been actively
monitoring communications for the past nine months. This project gave me a
renewed sense of focus and interest in the listserv. For the past four weeks I have
been enthusiastically involved in reading the communications from the ISLMANET-
L listserv.

2. ISLMANET-L is quite intuitive to utilize. Subscribing to the listserv is a simple
process that requires registering your email address by sending an email to
LISTSERV@LISTSERV.ILLINOIS.EDU with a blank subject line and “Subscribe
ISLMANET-L” with your first and last name in the body of the email. The rules and
protocols outlined in the introductory email were straightforward and easy to
follow.
To my knowledge, there is no digest feature for this particular listserv.Therefore, I
receive a minimum of 20-30 emails per day from ISLMANET-L, some of which are
responses to previous topics and others ofwhich relate to new andvaried topics. For
this limited period of four weeks I was able to manage the volume of the emails.
However, in general this is an excessive amount of email for me to keep up with
each day from just one listserv. I am able to manage this a bit by focusing on the
communications that are the most interesting and relevant to me, as identified in
the subject line of the email. While receiving communications in a digest form would
ease the overwhelming volume of emails, it might prove cumbersome when trying
to focus on particular areas of interest, as it would require scrolling through the
entire email to glean the most pertinent dialogue.
Ambience
The feel of ISLMANET-L is very down-to-earth, productive and casual. Members are
comfortable turning to one another for help with the simplest to the most complex
issues. It is clear that everyone is friendly and eager to help by providing advice,

3. suggestions and ideas. There is no pretense to the communications; most of them
are straightforward. This listserv feels like a group of co-workers all looking out for
the best interests of one another, willing to offer a helping hand whenever needed.
From requesting book titles based on descriptions that a student has provided to
looking for technical guidance regarding the use of Seamonkey, no question is too
big or small, and it is rare for one to go unanswered.This is truly a collaborative
group of professionals guiding and supporting one another based on their shared
passion for school libraries.
Archives
ISLMANET-L has a powerful tool to search archives. Because I haven’t accessed the
archives in the past, I was required to register myself and submit a special password
specifically for viewing the archives. Once I received a confirmation email and
clicked on the link I was allowed access to search the archives. There are many
options when performing an archive search that allow you to really focus in on the
topic of interest, including the following functions (all of which provide a
hyperlinked explanation to help perform the most effective search): narrow
selection, lists per page, search for string, search for substring, subject contains,
author’s address, date parameters, sort by preference and hits per page. This
dynamic functionality allows for a very specific, tailored search that, in my case,
successfully pulled up helpful and accurate results each time I performed a query.
For my first search, I was looking for information on banned book week. I typed
“banned book week” into the “search for string” option and came up with four

4. communications on this topic. Curious about school libraries for the youngest of
students, I typed “K-2 libraries” into the “subject contains” option and narrowed my
search further to focus on correspondence over the past month using the date
parameter options. This yielded seven emails from the month of September on K-2
libraries. Overall, I found the archive search function very intuitive to use and the
results extremely helpful. I will definitely keep this resource in mind the next time I
have a specific inquiry into which I need insight.
Topic of interest to subscribers
There has been much recent discussion about eReaders on the ISLMANET-L listserv.
A librarian posed an initial question about eReaders on Tuesday, September 27. This
librarian received a technology grant for her library media center and wanted to
purchase eReaders for her K-5 library. She was looking for guidance regarding
usage, storage and successful/not so successful experiences. The first response,
which came within ten minutes, suggested that licensing could be the most difficult
issue with eReaders because the rules keep changing. Each Kindle owned by a
school should be attached to a separate account, which is extremely challenging for
schools. However, there can be multiple Nooks attached to a single account, and
Barnes & Noble has hinted at an upcoming school management system for Nooks.
Other responses echoed thosesame concerns regarding licensing issues and the
resultant challenges provided for librarians. Yet another media specialist offered
congratulations on the grant and directed the original inquirer to a post by Buffy
Hamilton on The Unquiet Librarian website about the issues she had with Amazon

5. Kindle Education. There was some additional banter by multiple subscribers about
the features of Nooks versus Kindles and what makes one more attractive than the
other (larger screens, ease of use, pricing, no visible web browser preventing
content from getting “accidentally” added). Overall, it was a very fruitful discussion
on the topic that,surely, provided the original librarian with helpful insight as she
prepared to purchase her first eReaders.
Other aspects of the listserv monitoring experience
In my opinion, it seems that all users, new and returning, are treated equally and
with respect. Because there are so many subscribers who are only active when they
have a topic to discuss or want to respond to a thread, I don’t think anyone would
notice whether or not there was a new member on this listserv. At this point, I
haven’t witnessed any flames or issues of miscommunication; everyone seems very
cordial and respectful of one another. I volunteered to run the parent-led library
volunteer group at my daughters’ small, private Montessori school (Infant-6th
grade). It is undergoing an expansion, and the school directors would like to
automate the library. I was asked to investigate different types of software we could
use to make the library more user-friendly and accessible. I received six responses
with extremely helpful suggestions and recommendations for specific software
packages that I should evaluate. It was an extremely rewarding and fruitful inquiry.

6. Listserv subscription evaluation
As a GSLIS student, I would definitely continue subscribing to ISLMANET-L. It is a
fantastic way to make connections with other librarians in Illinois and to stay
current on important and practical issues surrounding the profession. The only
challenge is the volume of emails produced from this listserv. However, simply
examining the subject line of the emails makes it easy to weed out the topics that are
most relevant to me and to get rid of the others that are not. As an LIS professional I
would continue my subscription to this listserv because it provides an excellent
resource for tapping into the thoughts and opinions of colleagues (especially when
one might be the only librarian at a school who needsanother opinion) and learning
best practices around the state. I would recommend ISLMANET-L to anyone
involved in the field of school librarianship in the state of Illinois.
A great idea discussed on ISLMANET-L was the creation of an after-school librarian
class called “Future Librarians of America” for 5th-8th graders. Similar to a student
advisory group, students would provide input on book selection, offer book reviews,
assist in organizing and repairing books and help to coordinate the school’s book
fair. This idea could spark a lot of interest in the community and foster additional
excitement about the library for students.